Edinburgh: 24 hour Day

When we got to Edinburgh, we were both cold and tired. The plane from
Dublin was a small propeller plane that was extraordinarily loud and
seemingly without a heater. We managed to find a bus to the city
center where tom met us at the Waverly stop and we walked with out
gigantic bags back to his friends flat. Guy, a graduate in Literature
who lived with Tom during First year, was kind enough to allow the
three of us to crash in his two-bedroom flat for the weekend.

We were hoping to get in a nap at the flat but from the bus we saw the
beauty of the city and were excited to go and see it. Tom lead us up
to Princess street and along the Royal Mile, areas known for their
shops and the latter for its street performers.

Scotland was much more quirky than I expected it to be. Bagpipers in
kilts lined the streets, kilt shops promoting with posters of handsome
young men posing with their plaid skirts decked the walls. And
offerings for haunted ghost tours were thrust upon you as you passed
each streetcorner.

And the architecture is spectacular. I think Edinburgh now tops my
list as the most beautiful city I've yet to see. It was breathtaking
in every sense of the word with roads built up along jagged rocky
hillsides and tall beautifully constructed rock buildings lining the
pathways. There were loads of small alleyways off of the
main roads that took you to a small alcove with seemingly spontaneous
shops or markets nestled inside.

The main attraction in Edinburgh is the Edinburgh Castle, purched atop
the highest point in the city its brick walls have protected it from
capture for hundreds of years. But it costs £15 to enter and on my
budget that's not really feasible.

We walked in and saw a few of the views, then decided to go enjoy all
that is free in the city instead. First we found a small private art
gallery with some painted mosaic renditions of the city. Then we
wandered down and alley and found The Writers Museum ina beautiful old
house with narrow circle staircases and the personal belongings of
three of "Scotlands most notable poets", Robert Burns, Sir Walter
Scott, and Robert Louis Stevenson. This museum inspired a change in my
reading plans for the rest of the trip, and after I finish my current
book ill be focusing on the writing of local and historical authors
such as these to entertain me as I travel.

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Final day of Ireland-Howth and Alumni!

After much advice from everyone in Anna's family individually, we
decided a day-trip to Howth, a coastal city famous for its coast and
lighthouse, would be a good way to spend a relaxing final day in
Ireland.

We bussed our way to the city center after worriedly leaving Anna's
house because the alarm system makes lots of weird noises when we
tried to leave.

Howth is a beautiful seaside village with a dockland area and a famous
hike with lighthouse. Its about a 30 minute train ride from the city
and though we jumped onto the wrong train to start our journey, we
made it there in good time.

I'm really realizing that all the traveling and sightseeing is
exhausting so I'm starting to be better about taking time for naps.
The hike we went on was beautiful and took us up above the city so we
had some superb views of the sea and the enormous rocky crags jutting
from the water. The area has a huge array of birds as well and they
were happily floating about above the land and sea.

The hike up to the top of Hoath hill was a random one-lane road past a
number of cliff-side villas with beautiful flowers spilling over the
high fences. Atop of the hill one can look down ragged rocky cliffs to
see the seaside below. We decided to take a rest at the top and found
a great patch of grass to lie on. There was just enough sun in between
bouts of cloud-cover to keep us warm but after a while the hunger lead
us back to town where we went to a "chipper" (a fish'n'chips shop) to
get the traditional fish'n'chips meal consisting of battered and fried
cod and potatoes.

A note for all you language lovers out there. In the UK and Ireland
chips=french fries while crisps=chips..

We needed to get packed up for our journey to Scotland the next day so
we headed back to the city. Jackie proceeded to the house to rest up
and I stayed in the city to visit a few more galleries and locations
before meeting with an alumn of UCSD for drinks and an interview.

We met around Grafton street, a huge shopping area also hosting a
number of offices. Describing myself via email as being in jeans, a
black shirt and rainbows, Suzanne a UCSD Roosevelt College graduate
from 1996 found me amongst the huge crowd outside of Kehoe's an
after-work hot-spot of a pub.

Suzanne was originally from the east coast and saw San Diego as
somewhat of an escape during here college years. It was a little
tougher than she expected to be so far form home for college (no
internet or cell phones remember) but after that and a year abroad in
France she is definitely one to wander. After obtaining a masters
degree in Denver, she moved to D.C where she met her husband.
Eventually he moved to London and she joined, moving to Dublin
together about a year ago for new job opportunities.

It was a great evening and, as Americans abroad, we spent a good
amount of time comparing the political and social environments of the
US and places in Europe, comparing the drinking cultures and talking
about traveling. After a few drinks of Guinness and some Thai food I
had to catch the last bus of the night home.

After four hours of sleep, we got up at 330 to get to the Dublin
airport for our early flight to Edinburgh. Of course security only
took us about 20 minutes so while we were prepared for huge waits, we
ended up as the first to arrive at our gate and sat in the freezing
airport, too cold to sleep but too tired to do anything else.

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Sent from my mobile device

Wandering Dublin

Ending up with an extra few days in Dublin has actually been pretty
nice as we can get little errands done like laundry, and resting, and
drinking in the oldest pubs in Ireland :)

Our first day back we had a late start (those unfortunately have
become a bit of a trend) and ended up in Dublin only around noon. We
wandered to the George's Street Arcade (an indoor market of sorts)
before wandering together and touring around a church that we didn't
plan on seeing. St Audens had some interesting artifacts like the
Lucky Stone which was placed in front of a church by some saint of
days past for its protection.

After the church I wandered up to the Hugh Lane Gallery of Modern Art
(a Dublin must see) to see the old London studio of Francis Bacon as
well as a number of his original pieces. It was a beautiful gallery
and probably my number one recommendation for people who are in Dublin
and like art.

To get to the Hugh Lane one walks up O'Connell Street which is
intersected by The Spire (it was originally supposed to be the
Millennium Spire but due to a two-year delay on its completion it is
now just The Spire). The street has a huge array of other beautiful
buildings and monuments including the original General Post Office and
the
Parnell Monument.

I had quite a treck to meet back up with Jackie at 630, by the
directions I got it was "about 8 bridges up the river that way". We
met at The Brazen Head, the oldest pub in Ireland according to Anna,
and then made our way home after a long day of sightseeing :)

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Sent from my mobile device

Lake Surfing and Hikes: Day 2 in Cork

We started the morning off with some more acro yoga before embarking on another family walk. This one was a lingering walk along the hills of the countryside. We wandered along random paths and learned about new plant forms that don't grow outside of Ireland. We tried to touch the pretty purple flower (Foxtrot) that you want to touch and I almost did but was warned that it's poisonous just in time to save me from that as well.

After the walk, a few cousins Jacks and I taught the whole group (including a few more cousins that arrived) some acro yoga. We got a little ahead of ourselves and showed the group a lot of complicated poses-which of course they wanted to jump right into rather than learning the basics first. Jackie's a better base than I am so I got to fly the entire afternoon. Being lifted and twisted (and often dropped) by people wanting to learn Pasarita twists and throne and bird. Finally we all started to wear out and snacked on cheese and grapes. Yum!

The afternoon we decided to take out the Kayak and sit-down surfboard onto the lake. I am not a huge fan of being in water (I like to ride in things on top of it i.e. sailboats) so I decided to try out some sketching on the coast while they played. But the sit-surf board thing was too enticing so I dawned a much to large (but much appreciated) wetsuit and waded in. Only one of the boys was able to ride the thing and everyone else was falling off rather ungracefully into the cold water, so I of course had to see if I could manage it. And I did! Seamus (Anna's second-to-youngest brother) and I went on a nice little Kayak and surf-board stroll around the rocky points of the area and made our way back just as a new spurt of rain began to fall.

We later went for another walk, hesitant because we were expecting more rain. And this time we got distracted with the beauty of the coast (and with yoga and pictures of it). As it started to grow dark and our tummies rumbled, I fell in stinging nettle (not the best of luck with ireland and bumping into allergic things) and had some sweet welts on my hands as a result. They said the tingling would go away in 20 or so minutes but I was still feeling it into the next day.

Hours of card games later, a neighboring camper complained about our tent's noise, and so the Weasely village closed down for the evening.

First Day of Camping in Cork

Riding in a tiny car, my good friend Anna (whom I met during my second year in UCSD's international house) and her mother whisk us away to go camping on the coast of Ireland.

Its a beautiful drive and we stop at Cashel to see a perfect irish relic along the way. St Patrick's church is among the first to introduce neo-gothic architecture and acclaims itself quite the site because that's so. It was a beautiful area and a nice stop amidst a long drive.

When we finally got to the far edge of Cork county we had about an hour before dark during which we'd need to set up camping accommodation for the 10 of us. They do it Weasely style in the Murray family!

The main tent was huge! And it had rooms! And a kitchen and windows and a sitting area. The only thing it could compare to is the tent the Weasely family constructs during the big quidditch tournament in the second or third movie.

We stayed in Eagle Point Campground with a perfect view of an ocean inlet and loads of hiking nearby. Each day we'd go as a whole group on a family walk, wandering small back roads (that cars go incredibly fast down) with sweeping views.

Us girls napped most of the way but as we neared the sight we watched for the sweeping views of the hills and the sea.

Our campsite was perfect. Nestled away from the main road and with large grass lots, we see the ocean for sunset and have the water to play in during the day. This morning the whole family (12 of us all told) got to go on a walk along the back roads. Good conversation and a few times of silence because we were out of breath on the hills kept us going to trod along the gravel path. We accidentally ended up back
at a spot we had already visited and doing so were going the wrong way.

Cork County Beauty

We're not yet to our campsite, but I'm told that it is located in Cork and on the ocean and that it is beautiful.

The beauty is truly indescribable. I'm sitting on the rocky ledge of a campground in the county Cork of Ireland. The rocks here are covered with life, the white weathering, flame-like orange, rust colored organisms flourishing the cool moist breeze from the water. I expected more tremendous jutting rocks all around, instead we are surrounded by dark mountains in the distance and beautifully soft rolling hills covered in every shad of green one could wish to see. Close to the ground the grasses are sprinkled with small with and yellow flowers, doing their best to reach out of the grass and into the rare-shining light. While the water rhythmically laps onto the shore from the tide the breeze caresses the skin as it slides past obstacles on its journey from the sea.

You want to feel as serene as your surroundings here. And it reminds me of our families home in Colorado where it is easy to forget the chaos of the world and just be.

The rain. Beautiful sprinkling rain kept making its appearance and I realize why they don't mind the rain so much here. Its not pelting thunder and lightning cold windy rain. It' more like a cool light shower, kinda like a human sized version of the produce being sprayed with water at the grocery store. It comes down for a little while and gives you a nice sheen then departs to let you warm up and dry off in the sun.

Dublin

Thankfully when we arrived at the airport, the plane was miraculously in time and Anna was waiting in the welcome area with arms wide open in welcome. I met Anna in IHouse during my third year at UCSD and after she came to Colorado and drove to California in January blizzards with me, a trip to Vegas, and a visit to King's house in Santa Barbara we managed to stay friends across the Atlantic :)

At her house, we were introduced to the entire Murray clan, including a cousin who was visiting from north London. She then whisked us over to a German-themed party at the neighbors house where they were celebrating the birthday of German Chancellor Anna Merkel. It's really an interesting thing to arrive in Dublin and be whisked to a party where faces were embroidered with the German flag and German Eurovision winners (if you don't know Eurovision, it's like American Idol but a competition between European countries.

Exhausted we crashed on a wonderful sofa pull-out bed and slept the night away. The next morning we woke relatively early to accompany Anna into town where we planned to go on a free tour of Dublin (Google Sandemans New Europe Tours) and then to visit a photo gallery before meandering over to the Guiness Factory for a tour and free beer :)

On the way to the free tour, us girls were happily immersed in conversation and I looked up to see a good friend of my from UCSD smiling and walking my way. Kevin is another UCSD 2010 graduate who I met in a coffee shop in North Park (San Diego). While I knew he had travel plans in Europe, I hadn't talked to him since graduation so randomly bumping into him in Ireland was mindblowing! I really didn't know (and still don't know) what to think of the randomness of it!

We decided to partner up and all go on the walking tour together. During the adventure through the city's sights Kevin and I got to catch up on life since graduation. He told me of his travels prior to Dublin (he was travelling for about 2 weeks prior to when I left) and it seems we must have been in London at the same time as well. Kevin, while on a similar travelling journey around Europe now, will be going to Damaskus following his time in Europe to teach English and work. We split up in the afternoon because he had already done the Guiness stop, but that evening our groups joined forces for a night out in Dublin.

This is seemingly a pretty small town, especially after spending so much time in London. Everything was in walking distance but the streets are pretty hard to navigate as, like in most European cities, they didn't do much central planning and as the small villages grew larger they had to merge their often criss-crossing paths into singular roads. Anna explained that in Dublin, when streets get too long (more than a block) they change names. For what reason? "Eh they just don't like long roads" She explained.

The Guiness Factory was amazing. It's an incredible large, old brick building that has been remodeled internally to create a pathway of a tour that takes you through the various steps and processes they follow to make Guiness. And then the best part...when you finally smell each ingredient and see how they process it you can proceed to the Sky Bar to get your fresh pint of recently brewed beer. And yumm it was good! Probably the best Guiness I can and ever will taste. It was perfect, light, dark, and frothy. Yum!!

That night we went to a Hostel birthday part and listened to Happy Birthday sung in about 7 languages while eating a mixture of sushi, deli meats, cake, and wine.

A beautiful first day in Ireland to be followed by a few days of camping...

London Day 3 and 4

Day 3 was another late start (this jet lag is rough!) Then we went to have lunch with my friend Lauren (met during my summer living in London), explored Covent Garden a bit more, and then visited the Photography Gallery which had a show of Sally Mann's work. Jackie's a photographer so we'll be seeing a lot of photo museums I presume. Next we went to the beautiful Victoria and Albert Museum which hosts an
incredible array of world-wide antiques, art, and cultural pieces in one fantastic building. If you go to London, you must visit this museum. It was like the Roosevelt College General Education course, Making of the Modern World, wrapped up into a museum of cool artifacts instead of a 6-quarter class sequence.

That evening a whole group of my old friends was planning to go out in Camden but as per Matt, plans changed last minute and we went out in Brick Lane instead. Brick Lane seems to be the new trendy area to go out in London and on a Friday evening people were dressed in an array of attires from after-work suits to going-out-dancing attire. My favorite thing to drink England is the hard cider, its honestly the most delicious alcoholic beverage one can consume. After a wonderful few hours of sitting on the cold cement floor we found a table that had ordered a round of beers that didn't come until they left. And so we had more drinks and for free! Thing was, we needed to catch the last Tube to get home so when I realized the time we had to sprint out of the pub to the station...only to find the doors being closed. It wouldn't have been an issue as there are night buses that run the same routes as the tube, but Brick Lane is not somewhere I know and is also the most opposite side of the city we could have gone to from where we stayed. and my phone was threatening to die. Through great fortune I was able to get in touch with Matt (via a call to his brother because Matts phone also died) and we were able to be hosted by Chris (the brother) for the night. We even got our own bed to sleep in!

Day four and our last in London had another lazy start before as we packed up to leave. Ed hung out with us for a while and we drove to the city to visit Hyde Park. With ducks frolicking for bread bits and paddleboaters moving slowly across the water I wanted to take another nap but instead Jackie and I did some acroyoga before it was time for Ed to take off and for us to get to the train station for our ride to
Gatwick airport.

Gatwick by the way is a Treck from London. It was about an hour bus ride but its reasonably affordable at about £7. We slept along the way.

As far as Dublin goes, I hope Anna can find us at the airport because I don't have her phone number. And it seems our flight is delayed...

London: Day 1 and 2

What a whirl in the city!!

And boy were we tired. When we first arrived we napped for a good long time. I was able to finally get Jackie out of bed around 10 so we could shower and decide what to do for the day.

Knowing she likes things that are more unusual or eclectic, I first showed Jackie Camden Town, a bristling area of North London with one of the best arrays of random and cheap stuff that one can find. Still pretty exhausted that filled our first day before we tubed home to Chiswick, the area in which my good friend Ed lives.

Day 2 was a late start because I realized that after Dublin we needed to book our travel south through England before we did anything else. After much stress all of the trips fell into place once we got to Edinburgh...3 days there, a few in Manchester with Tom, a bit of time to visit Matt in Bristol, then a quick few days back in London before we depart for Brussels to spend the rest of the time on the continent.

Anyway, day 2 then included a visit to the shops and street performers at Covent Garden, a quick walk along the Thames to get to an Alumni interview! Siana graduated from Marshall College at UCSD and scored a sweet job doing research on US Immigration for a law firm the job was flexible enough that when she and her then boyfriend decided to pick up and move to Europe, she was able to keep the job and work from home in London! (The husband is now a boyfriend and they have a 7 month old son!) So cool!

After the interview Jackie and I toured my favorite gallery in London the Tate Modern before we met with another past UCSD international student Phil. Phil and I first got to know eachother during fire week at UCSD when he, 3 other English students (Matt, Ed, and Tom) and I rented a Mustang and drove to my 'cousin' King's house north of Santa Barbara and then celebrated Halloween in Isle Vista.

Sights versus Experiences

Kristin and Kat will especially appreciate this email. Its about travelling to see stuff, sights/buildings/places versus travelling for experiences.

I travel for experiences. Seeing the tower of London or the Roman Colleseum are cool, and they inspire me to think about history and our origins. But mostly I find myself thinking about how people seem to often travel to see stuff rather than gain experiences.

I travel for experiences. Ya, seeing a sight I've heard about for years on end is cool, but I don't look back on that place years later. From my last trip to Europe I look back at the bottle of wine and baguette that I shared with my friend Jake while overlooking the Eiffel tower or the time Matt and I went to the Heath and layed a scarf out in the tall grass and spent the day snacking and drinking cider from the can.

In my 3 days thus far I love the feeling that I have being back in tis city. I love that after a few hours of museum wandering Jackie and I go find a park to nap in. And last night on our night out in Brick Lane I love that Matt plopped down on the dirty floor in the back garden of a bar and our whole group spent the evening sitting indian style while we drank and talked the night away.

So what this comes down to is that I'll be seeing the sights but for me that's not particularly important (I've told Jackie that ill plan the location and how to get there but as far as the sights its on her to choose those) but the people I'll be reuniting with and the new friends I'll make.

The Tube

You know how buses have those pretty awful colored seats with the strange patterns that you wonder how or why anyone would conceive of them. Well the tube is like that too, though I don't perceive that dirty feeling or distaste of it as I do with public transportation in other places. Maybe its because the tube is so necessary. Because it's something that everyone uses out of ease and preference rather than a resource used by those with little access to other things.

Different lines have different feelings as well. While there's always a diverse array of people on board, sometimes you're very obviously in a car of bankers, or one of hipsters and when you think the reason is because of the stop the train has just been to.

I wonder sometimes where they are going. Where they've come from. And how interesting really is their iPod?

I also love making friends on the tube. You're often in very intimate space with people and (with the right tact) there are any number of jokes you can make to make the situation a little less uncomfortable (though its highly likely with the lack of British humor to make the situation much worse too).

I wish that there were more cities with such an array of transportation options. When I last lived here my relaxed (non-existent) schedule allowed me to take days where I would get off at a random stop and just explore. How often do we do that on a normal
day in the city you live in? Go to a random part of town with the intention of just wandering around to see what there is to find.

Back in San Diego there was a day my good friend Kristin and I decided to walk San Diego. For 6 hours we wandered the streets, found great new restaurants, and visited new parts of a city we had lived in for 4 years. During the walk we remarked how European it felt to just wander and walk and it makes me sad to think that it is inherently un-American to just wander and walk.

Try it sometime

1st day in London

We managed to get to Ed's house and passed out. But, wanting to get adjusted to the time zone I didn't let us nap too long so we cleaned up, ate and headed off to one of the most interesting places in London, Camden Town.

Camden is a fascinating section of north London where tourists swarm, thick-soled black boots carry around individuals whose eye-makeup resembles the appearance of a techno-raccoon and the clothes and knick-nacks are incredibly inexpensive. A place I frequented often when I lived in London before, Camden is an ever fascinating town where the smells can draw you into the most unlikely of shops or cause you to lose the lunch you recently savored.

Shops sell things ranging from jewelry and clothes to light fixtures and __. My favorites are the thousands of scarves of every fabric and color.

After hours of wandering and gawking and snacking on delicious (though often dangerous) samples, we made our way home on the Tube and I fell to sleep almost immediately. Hopefully I'll wake up on London time tomorrow!

Simultaneous traveling and packing...

Putting all of your travel plans together and purchasing what you need and packing it while discarding other things is quite a task. Doing it while you have no home base and are traveling between states going to conferences and visiting friends is a whole 'nother beast. And that is exactly what I did, leaving my bag full of the necessities as well as a whole slew of random items I realized I didn't have anything to do with along the way.

Here's an overview of my last few weeks
June 13 I graduated from Roosevelt College at UCSD
June 20 I fleew to Kansas City MO to intern at the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference
June 25th I flew home to Colorado to spend some time with my sisters
June 30th I headed back to San Diego to relax and sort out the final details of moving out of my last apartment
July 7th I flew to Spokane Washington to visit my best friend. (explanation of this below)
July 12th I flew to LA and stayed with Julie before flying to London the morning of the 13th.

While I intended to see my friend Aliina before I headed for Europe, what actually happened here was that when I originally booked my plane ticket to London, I realized that flying out of LA was about $250 cheaper than it would be to fly out of San Diego. So, being the non-LA person that I am, I booked the ticket thinking I could catch a cheap commuter flight to LA or ride the train to get there before I flew out. What I didn't realize is that there really is no such thing as a cheap commuter flight to LA (most flights I found costed around $180 and had a layover in Phoenix) and the train station in LA goes nowhere near LAX.

When I was trying to figure out how to get to LA, Aliina and I were brainstorming and we looked into flights from SD to Spokane (a little layover) then to LA and found that that option was cheaper than the train or more "direct" flights and so I booked the ticket.

Now, what I learned from having this crazy schedule is that it makes packing for the final destination immensely hard. I had to have conference attire, clothes to work in the field in Spokane, and all the gadgets I needed for Europe. To say the least I am completely overpacked and have found that I didn't download a majority of my favorite music onto my iPhone, leaving me with much too much country music and non of the correct playlists.

As ever though, I'm sure I'll manage to pull all the right things together to make this trip a success! Be warned though, if you have a big trip, try to relax at home and really plan out your packing before you go!

Arrived!

And it's 6am in London....we have a long day ahead of us.

I usually have a knack for being able to sleep on airplanes. I cozy down against the window, curl my legs up with my feet resting on the arm rest in front of me and viola! I'm asleep. Except for this flight. From LA to DC I chose not to sleep because I wanted to get myself sorted on London time by falling asleep nicely on my long Atlantic flight at 5pm EST which would be around 10pm in London. While it would be an early rise in the morning, I figured it was perfect because it got me aligned with the time zone ahead.

Except that for some reason I just could not sleep. I was completely exhausted (I hadn't gotten a whole lot of sleep in Spokane the week before, and the night before my flight I was arranging things in LA so I only managed about 4 hours of sleep).

I think it was because I've had so many things running through my head. Would we get to London in time to make it to Ed's house before he had to leave for work? If not, were we then stuck lugging around our huge backpacks for an entire day throughout London? What should we do as our first day back in London? Will I be able to arrange to see all my old friends (I previously lived in London for 3 months in 2008) in the few days we're here?

Fortunately we did make it to the tube stop on the District line in time enough that Ed could meet us and take us to his place for a quick morning nap. He lives in Chiswick, which is in Southwest London so I haven't spent much time here but it's a beautiful area with lots of little parks.

We've made it to home base #1 in Europe!

Planning

I graduated on Sunday, June 13th from Eleanor Roosevelt College at UCSD. Once my mom left and I settled back into life, well, I didn't really get to settle back in. I had to move out of my apartment by the following Sunday because on Monday the 21st I flew to Kansas City, MO for the 42nd annual SkilllsUSA Leadership and Skills Conference (to which I have attended for the past 6 years). The next Saturday (June 25) I flew to my mom's current home in Fort Collins, CO so I could play with my younger sisters (9 and 7 years old). I will then spend a full week in San Diego getting rid of the last of my nice stuff (sleeping bag, backpack etc) and will be crashing with an assortment of friends before I go to Spokane, Washington to visit my best friend Aliina. I leave Aliina and will spend a night in the LA airport before I hop on a flight to London where I will begin the 3 month journey I am planning for my post-graduation celebration.

My travel plans are...well, not planned. A good friend Brian was so kind to send me all of his old Europe travel books (he did a big trip the summer of 07) and otherwise I haven't really had the time to make plans. I know that I have friends in a few places that I'd like to see, and there are a few sights that peak my interest, but part of this trip was to not have a plan.

The general idea of what I'll be doing is as follows...
Fly into London July 14th
Fly to Dublin July 17th to camp around Ireland with a friend
........
.....
......

Yup, that's all I got. On a more general note though, after Dublin I'll go over to Edinburgh to see some castles and meet with another I-House friend Tom and maybe visit Glasglow before going south to Manchester, the locale of another friend. I'd like to stop by Bristol to visit the friend who I lived with in London a few summers ago before heading across to France.

Generally from Paris, we'll see some of the French countryside and hopefully a good number of wineries as we mosy the way over to Switzerland. Rumor has told me that there is an amazing train ride over the French Alps and into the Swiss territory and I fully intend to find out more about that. After perusing across Switzerland, I want to plunge into Italy and plan to hit up a number of the famous cities as well as spend some time in the Tuscan countryside. Generallly after Italy I'll head north through Germany to visit a few friends before making my way further north.

And that's the general plan....

I do have a "15 day in 2 months" Eurail pass that will come in handy and I'm aware of a large number of discount airlines that will often only charge you 5 euro for a flight. I also hope to work on an organic farm somewhere through WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) and am doing my best to find an ashram at which I can work and do some yoga before I have to get back stateside.

If anyone has ideas, please spill them here! I'll seriously go anywhere that you can make sound tempting enough!

Where did this trip come from

I've always loved to travel and particularly to uproot my life and start anew somewhere else. I think this seemingly innate enjoyment of moving comes in large part from the fact that during my childhood I lived in 7 different states before the age of 8 and, until UCSD, have never spent more than 3 years at a single school. And I like to move, I love the challenge of finding myself again amongst new people, scenery and challenges. But of course I didn't realize that until the end of college when I realized that I was in one place and one school longer than I had ever been anywhere before.

Not that I haven't had a singular place to call home throughout my life of moving. My great-grandfather had built a house in the late 1800's in the Plateau Valley of Colorado's western slopes to which my mother's entire family makes pilgrimages for every holiday imaginable. This place, The Mountain House, is the only place I will ever consider home. The rest of the places I make my life and live are just the places I live at any given point in time-places in which I develop beautiful relationships and get to know like the back of my hand but are still simply the places I know well instead of being a visitor to.

Back to the point, I love to travel as well. Though my visits of US locations is extensive I have had very little experience abroad. My sophomore summer I had the fortune to befriend an English student studying at UCSD whose family eventually invited me to take residence with them for a summer. After my sophomore year I found a reciprocal work-exchange program and went to London to live and play and just explore for a few months. And explore I did. I ventured to a new 'tube' stop every few days and just walked the city, finding pubs and galleries and people with which to speak. London was wonderful, and I had the fortune to visit friends in Leeds and Paris as well, but with London I lived there, I didn't travel much.

So this trip is my newest adventure. I have a habit of getting these ideas in my head and just going with them--this trip is no different. I told friends early on that after I graduated from UCSD I wanted to sell everything and just go vagabond around Europe for a while, staying with the friends I had made through living in UCSD's International House two years and at the occasional hostel. And so I am. I've pared down my life of four years to 4 boxes, a bike, and a guitar (which my dear friends Sam, Kristin, and Kat are storing for me while I go) and will be living out of a backpack for the next three months while I wander across Europe.

I've thought about why I'm doing this, and I'm still not particularly sure. I'm not looking for anything that I can think of, it's not to prove anything, it's truly just to explore.

The thing is, I really love the university that I'm leaving. In particular I've had an incredible opportunity over the past 2 years working for a program called the Alumni Discovery Initiative through which current students meet with and hear the stories of countless alumni in order to get a picture of the history of the university through the eyes of the students. It's been an awesome project and has brought some amazing people into my life. So I figured, why not take that project abroad with me!? That means the Alumni Association has helped me to research a number of alumni who are abroad in western Europe so that I've got a few email addresses and phone numbers with which to contact people who supposedly live abroad. With this information I'll do my best to get in touch with alumni abroad and will travel (all as part of my big personal adventure) to meet with them and hear their stories. How cool is that!?

And, best of all, the Association is going to help me to publicize my writing about this trip and will post the pictures that I take with random individuals around Europe and a Flat Stanley of our very own Sun God.

Departure is July 13th and after I land in London (and spend a few days with old international friends) all I have planned so far is a trip to Dublin where I'll meet Anna from my second year in I-House and go camping along the coast with her family.